The Vexatious Monkey

How Green is Your State

2013-07-09T20:38:00.003-07:00

Getting on the 405

2013-06-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get this shot for months. Obviously some kid who was thoroughly baked or on acid created some silly art.

On Mr. Snowden and the NSA...

2013-06-14T22:05:00.001-07:00

The difference between a democracy and a police state is that in a democracy, your government hears you. In a police state, they listen to you.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: Playing the Obama Bumper Sticker Game | Common Dreams

2013-06-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's depressing. So much so that it is becoming hilarious in a way that rivals the end of Monty Python's "Life of Brian".
Not A Kenyan.
Not a Socialist.
Not a Nazi.
Not even a fucking Liberal.....he's to the right of Reagan on more issues than he is to the left of him.
And finally the conservatives seem to have discovered the Constitution-now they actually have something real to use against him. At least something real to use against him that wouldn't require them to throw all of their major donors in Leavenworth. At least not immediately.
And this pains me greatly for two reasons, he has the brains, charisma, and leadership skills to transform the whole world forever practically overnight-and hasn't. He has also helped so many immigrants and people in the LGBT community so much-but then stabbed them in the back by rushing their civil liberties while expanding their civil rights.
That hurts me because for the last 25 years I have been living in, and working in, those communities. One the people who I love more than anything in the world is both Latino and a member of the LGBT community. I want to be proud of him, but instead I can only offer a little gratitude and then go back to being disgusted.

From Common Dreams:
"Playing the Obama Bumper Sticker Game | Common Dreams

There’s no easier way to gauge the disappointment that liberals and progressives should feel toward President Obama than to look at their cars – more specifically, their bumper stickers.

(Photo: Mikebny/ Flickr)I’ve been playing this game for years. Whenever I see a car with an Obama-Biden bumper sticker and a second bumper sticker, most of the time I can predict the following about that second sticker:"

Lindsay Lohan in Court

2013-03-19T19:39:00.001-07:00

...Insider saying "Lindsay Lohan Court" 3rd most popular search today on Yahoo.
This begs 2 key questions:
1.) Is it any wonder George Carlin thought the human race was doomed?
2.) Who the FUCK still uses Yahoo?
'via Blog this'

Happy 10th Birthday, Iraq War...Dangerous Minds | Dying vet’s ‘fuck you’ letter to George Bush & Dick Cheney needs to be read by every American

2013-03-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

This says all that needs to be said...well, except fuck you to the cowards in the current government -a list too long to print...
Where is the justice and the truth and the American Fucking Way?
I'll tell you where, it's out in the alley, on it's knees in broken glass desperately trying to find the tiny, disease-ridden dick of a lobbyist so it can suck it.
And you know what? It's your fault. You keep voting for these lying-ass rat-bastards.
Bend over and take what you deserve......

Dangerous Minds | Dying vet’s ‘fuck you’ letter to George Bush & Dick Cheney needs to be read by every American: "To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care."

'via Blog this'

From TheAtlanticWire.com: This Would be Infuriating if.....

2013-03-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

...the blatant incompetence and cowardly, poorly-hidden white supremacism weren't so utterly comical.
With all due respect to the young lady- she seems nice and earnest enough-this is a great lesson:If you are approached by someone to stand up for their cause and be used as an example? Be prepared to be used and made an example of.

Anybody who doesn't think there isn't still massive institutionalized racism in this country either needs to sprout a brain-stem or listen to white people talk.

My personal opinion is that most racism is due more to culture clash and ignorance than hate. I realize that there is definitely a hate component to it in the bigger sense, but just think about how completely ignorant of the world most people are. If any of you have lived in a severely economically depressed, crime-ridden area in a major city, imagine the average wonder-bread chomping, working-class white dude who has never lived there would react upon being dumped there.
That is what it is like for Whitey when he meets people from that background anywhere. They are foreigners, and his little Wonder-Bread-addled chimpanzee-brain is taught to loathe and fear foreigners simply because they are different.
Nothing much changes that quickly, we have the ability to evolve consciously, but that costs education dollars that we are unwilling to spend because those who profit from dividing and controlling us tell us so.
So, we get what we deserve.

" ...Neither Fisher nor Blum mentioned those 42 applicants in interviews. Nor did they acknowledge the 168 black and Latino students with grades as good as or better than Fisher's who were also denied entry into the university that year. Also left unsaid is the fact that Fisher turned down a standard UT offer under which she could have gone to the university her sophomore year if she earned a 3.2 GPA at another Texas university school in her freshman year.....

....Public opinion on race has changed over time as well. In the 1950s, surveys show, most white Americans believed that black Americans faced substantial discrimination but that they themselves experienced little. Today, despite gaping disparities between black and white Americans in income, education, health care, homeownership, employment and college admissions, a majority of white Americans now believe they are just as likely, or more likely, to face discrimination as black Americans."

Chris Dorner. Not Buying Any of it. Not From......

2013-02-16T00:35:00.000-08:00

....The Maintream Media, not from RT......nobody.
It's all bullshit.
Absorb as much raw info as you can and make up your OWN damn mind.

Okay, so in the spirit of intellectual honesty let me say a few things-pro and con.
First off, I believe Dorner is dead. I also believe he snapped because he got fucked.
Secondly, I watch RT from time to time. I call it Vladjazeera. It is a Russian-owned equivalent of FOX News.
That insult being said, even Fox gets things right from time to time.
The female host is, to put it bluntly, ape-ing Rachel Maddow. Probably using NLP techniques as well (do the research, it'll explain why a whole lot of people fall for the same shit over and over again.)
Listen to her cadence, her phrasing, her choice of language....it is all to draw-in would-be fans of Left-Leaning American Voters.
Yes, in caps. They are a proper noun now.
Much of this language is (pardon the obvious pun) -incendiary
But, with good reason.
There are MANY ACTUAL FACTS in this interchange that haven't and probably won't make the M$M.
I have no reason to doubt that Chris Dorner committed the acts he was accused of, but the end-result is that the WHY of his actions is being obfuscated.
And I have heard NO local reporters use the word 'allegedly' in any of the accounts since this whole thing started.
I despise the alleged actions of Dorner, but everything that happened he is alleged to have done until proven.
You just let the media bulldoze you into thinking any of this was proven.
Didn't you?
If I were a family member? I'd be filing a shit-ton of lawsuits right now....I don't say this in support of anybody, just a reminder to the 'journalists' who have completely ignored their personal obligation to the Constitution...that pesky thing that gives them a job....
...and a free country to live in where they can suck any corporate dick for money, malign any person across the globe (rightly or wrongly) and come home to a secure building with gates and locks and security systems and STILL have the right to keep any appropriate self-defense ordinance under their bed if the object of their profession decides to come-a-callin' late at night to dispute a story.
Most citizens and journalists on this pathetic rock don't (legally) have that luxury (or right, if you are rich)
I don't know what happened.
Neither do you.
If people want to stop all of the conspiracy theorists from doing their job of extrapolating observation and comparing it to history and coming up with...????
Maybe a little transparency should happen.
I have caught several inconsistencies in the stories that came from the crimes, the manhunt, and the subsequent standoff.....and I wasn't even looking. They were just there-and nobody questioned them.
Then other reports have surfaced detailing differences in official accounts.
Nope. No more links. Do your own homework.
You probably won't so I am not going to waste my time doing it for you.

We Are Witnessing The Death Of Small Business In America

2013-01-07T23:37:00.000-08:00

Good, balanced article that shies away from painting any one cause with a broad brush. Worth a read. It is seems, based on everything I can see, to be well researched and sourced. I didn't see much in the way of any partisan bias. It gives consideration to the points made by both liberals and conservatives alike lending weight to the argument that there needs to be a holistic, balanced approach to reform at all levels.

We Are Witnessing The Death Of Small Business In America: "We Are Witnessing The Death Of Small Business In America
By Michael, on December 13th, 2012
Historically, small businesses have been the primary engine of new job creation in the United States. If the economy was getting healthy, we would expect to see the number of jobs at new businesses rise. Instead, we are witnessing just the opposite. We are told that the economy is supposed to be "recovering", but the number of "startup jobs" at new businesses has fallen for five years in a row."

'via Blog this'

If it Doesn't Happen to Americans, it Doesn't Happen......

2012-12-20T13:35:00.001-08:00

No false equivalency here-its EXACTLY the same thing...where was the outrage last Friday? The calls to ban knives?
Oh, that's right, once again, little brown 3rd World kids don't count.

These pictures show a man obsessed by Doomsday rumours slashing a Chinese schoolgirl with a machete outside her school gates.

Min Yongjun, 36, has been arrested on suspicion of jeopardising public security for stabbing a total of 23 children last Friday

Oh, and then there is this.

Let's just ban everything and blame bad shit on fucktards.

This isn't about you, or your kid, or and one person or small group of people. This is about the whole fucking world-everybody. This is about all of us making sure that the human race isn't crushed.

Mayor Bloomerberg Tells the President of the United States How to do His Job

2012-12-16T14:27:00.001-08:00

Mayor Bloomberg, a man who has changed laws to stay in power has also referred to the NYPD as his army....
Well, Mayor Bloomberg's 'army' is responsible for one of the largest mass homicides of civilians in recent years in NYC. Mayor Bloomberg's 'army' has also been found guilty of targeting brown people for unconstitutional, warrantless searches. The Mayor's 'army' has also been given a free pass to assault people for exercising their right to protest-even though they (like Anthony Balogna) have been caught on video blatantly assaulting people without cause. Mr. Bloomberg is also crediting his assault on the Constitution with eradicating crime in NYC when in reality it probably has more to do with: 1) the over-gentrification and 2)the ultra-commercialization which has priced criminals out of the market and just moved them into other people's communities.
If you are poor in NYC you still go to a shitty school and if you are black in NYC you still get unfair treatment from the cops.
Now the Mayor is telling the back guy in the White House how to do his job.
I think it is pretty obvious (IN MY OPINION) that Bloomberg is a power-hungry racist and has no standing to tell anyone they should lose their civil liberties and rights because nobody does anything about the mentally ill.

No UK Trial for 'UFO Hacker' - Articles - Coast to Coast AM

2012-12-14T22:35:00.001-08:00

No UK Trial for 'UFO Hacker' - Articles - Coast to Coast AM: "The decade-long legal saga of UK computer hacker Gary McKinnon appears to have been resolved today as British officials decided against putting him on trial in England or launching a new criminal investigation,"

'via Blog this'

Not My Words-CNN's: Drone strikes kill, maim and traumatize too many civilians, U.S. study says - CNN.com

2012-12-14T14:40:00.002-08:00

"Drone strikes kill, maim and traumatize too many civilians, U.S. study says - CNN.com: "(CNN) -- U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have killed far more people than the United States has acknowledged, have traumatized innocent residents and largely been ineffective, according to a new study released Tuesday.
The study by Stanford Law School and New York University's School of Law calls for a re-evaluation of the practice, saying the number of "high-level" targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low -- about 2%."

So, our President is shedding tears in public over a horrendous tragedy. That is right and proper. Fortunately for shut-ins and morons, this gives the media something to vomit over the airwaves 24/7 for the next week to sell more commercial.
While we obsess over every single bit of minutiae in this case as if we actually the investigating it ourselves, and while every reporter at every news conference is dying to ask the one question that will make them sound important and worthy of a job in national news, we-as a nation-are doing the same thing on a regular basis. It just doesn't matter because they are little, poor, brown babies in foreign, Third-World countries and it is being done by, and at the behest of 'sane, rational professionals' in the name of 'National Security'.

Notice I am not mentioning what horrendous tragedy.
I am probably the only blogger in America who isn't.

The sheer fact that one is getting wall-to wall coverage and the other gets only tertiary coverage is even more disgusting.
All the innocents die as part of the same struggle, and only a few are actually given a shit about by anyone but their loved ones and a precious few activists.'via Blog this'

This is Why WeOwn Guns: Black Friday Fighting Over Phones During WalMart 2012

2012-11-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

I would be willing to bet that most of these people only have a couple of days worth of food stored at home.
This is just over cheap, prepaid phones.
What if there was a food shortage?
This is why we are allowed to own rapid-fire, military-style firearms with high capacity magazines.

Think a widespread food disaster is not gonna happen?
One of the samartest guys in the world, Michio Kaku, is concerned about it. Watch here.

Black Friday Fighting Over Phones During WalMart 2012 VERY SAD!!!! - YouTube: ""

'via Blog this'

Feet to the Fire Time Homies.....

2012-11-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

Pulled this from a trusted source on FB...and YES it is sourced. It is up to you to decide if you will ignore it or research it further and make your voice heard."FYI, just the fact you are reading this means your voice is probably being heard-or rather read by an algorithm.
It happens because we believe it can't, but just look at who voted for this-alot of supposed 'good guys'.

"The List OF 75 US Senators Who Voted To Let 30,000 Drones Shoot Americans In The Streets
February 13, 2012

Source: Senate.gov
Via: Vid Rebel

The House and Senate voted for the passage of the FAA bill that funds 30,000 drones to surveil Americans knowing that the majority are to be armed initially with shotgun tasers. Two Americans a week die from tasers so these are lethal weapons. But these drones can easily be equipped with machine guns and rockets. I decided to only report the Senate vote because the bill included strong anti-union sections that forced House Democrats to vote against the overall bill. A quick glance of the Senate No votes revealed one staunch Zionist from a strong union state who probably would have voted for the bill if it were a stand alone measure without the union bashing.

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
Max Baucus (D-MT)
Mark Begich (D-AK)
Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Roy Blunt (R-MO)
John Boozman (R-AR)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Scott Brown (R-MA)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Tom Carper (D-DE)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Dan Coats (R-IN)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Chris Coons (D-DE)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Charles Grassley (R-IA)
Kay Hagan (D-NC)
Dean Heller (R-NV)
John Hoeven (R-ND)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
Dan Inouye (D-HI)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Mike Johanns (R-NE)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Ron Johnson (R-WI)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Herbert Kohl (D-WI)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Joe Lieberman (ID-CT)
Dick Lugar (R-IN)
Joe Manchin (D-WV)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Rob Portman (R-OH)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
John Reed (D-RI)
Harry Reid (D-NV)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
John Thune (R-SD)
Pat Toomey (R-PA)
Mark Udall (D-CO)
Tom Udall (D-NM)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Jim Webb (D-VA)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)"

My Take on a REALLY Good Spiegel Article:

2012-09-15T23:47:00.003-07:00

...also-and this is based upon ONLY anecdotal evidence: The shipping routes for the world's supply of oil depends on the US Navy spending a reported $160billion to protect the shipping lanes. As pressure builds for us to scale back on military spending and rely less on oil from the Middle East it may just be other countries preparing to pick-up the slack.
I am being overly-optimistic, but I think that there will be a point where the US need for long-distance importation of fuel will drop precipitously. That will make the obligation of our Navy to be a party to securing as much of the shipping lanes a financial favor that we don't need to pay for anymore. If we suddenly void patrols in certain parts of the world it would become a haven for even more piracy.
The reason why I bring this up is because there have been rumors-for a couple of years now- that US military contractors are guarding mining operation in Afghanistan.
Meaning: We are business partners on some level, not JUST potential adversaries.
This is just MY take, but I see that there is less actual animosity between us and China than is being sold, but neither the US or anyone else wants to admit we are 'drawing-down' on an international scale.

Financially, we have China by the balls. Their corrupt "Communist" leaders hold huge stakes in the banks. If we tell them to go pound sand on on our debt-we will be fine-their banks won't.
We wouldn't do it without 'cause'. Their surplus would evaporate overnight and all of the infrastructure projects they are using to employ (and placate)peasants who would otherwise be unemployed AND they would have to borrow money to keep the peasants fed and housed.
We could also slow imports-or at the very least-force them to import what our treaties say (they currently aren't honoring the trade agreements on us importing goods there).

What I think is this: Since the end of the Soviet Bloc, I THINK (just a hunch) the West has been gradually hinting at this. I think the first Gulf War was an example: If memory suits me, we essentially CHARGED some of the coalition forces for our support role just so they could participate.
If we just maintained our present force, it would take decades for any other power to rival our abilities.
In short: We are shoring-up their power with ours for diplomatic means.
My HOPE is that this trend is for us to use our economic might to force other nations to carry their share of the burden.
The reason I say this is because of what I actually KNOW: N. Korea is evil (as a government) and they have made pacts with Burma to develop nuclear weapons and missile systems, and Burma has (since at least 2005) has been selling uranium to Iran.
If we extricate ourselves from NEEDING things that travel through those regions and no body takes up the slack...who foots the bill? Who actually does it?
Is our Navy going to become a mercenary force to keep other nations' finances in order?
Another hope is that, we can stop acting as an empire in a way that grants everybody their own security by their own means.
Of course, I could be wrong and we could be hurtling inexorably towards WW III.
But I think that half a century of smart, well intentioned diplomats have been trying to head this off in advance. There are a lot of smart people working for our government (and others'). I think that they saw much of this coming.
Ant way...click the link, read the story. The translation might be bad and might have missed it, but this is my analysis-but I am just a citizen. I could be wrong.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/strengthening-of-chinese-navy-sparks-worries-in-region-and-beyond-a-855622.html#ref=rss

"How's that Fucking Gun Ban Working for You, Dipshits?-NYPD Shoots Civilians.

2012-09-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd wait a couple of weeks before this bit of nastiness:
How's that fucking gun ban working, dipshits?
The NYPD does it again.
I don't know what the New York standard is but in AZ if you shoot anyone more than 3 times in self-defense you are probably going to prison. If you shoot bystanders by accident you are DEFINITELY going to prison.
This point was also made after the Gabby Giffords shooting as there were several people there with CCW permits-some of them probably lost their abiity to have a permit for one simple reason: If any law enforcement agency even INVESTIGATED any of them in the shooting-not even arrested or charged, they cannot, by law have said permit any longer.
Given the NYPD's recent record with that scumbag Antony Bologna pepper spraying those girls without cause and getting off scott-free, I'd say they have a serious gap in training when it comes to use of force. If this had happened in Phoenix those officers would have gotten fried.
Perhaps, since guns are (basically) illegal in NYC, the average patrolman doesn't need one anymore? It seems to me that the last few months-and the last couple of decades for that matter-have shown that whoever is training these people in appropriate behavior sucks at their job. A disciplined force does as it is trained. So, either their training sucks or the leaders who decide the training suck..
I find it interesting that, nationwide, somewhere north of 90% of all revoked CCW permits are the result of infractions that don't involve any sort of gunplay, but are merely walking into a building or area where they are not allowed to carry-often accidentally.
These were trained officers. One of them making the mistake is a mistake, 2 making the same mistake 9 times is poor training and bad selection of candidates for the Academy.

GO Chris Hedges! Democracy at Work! Obama's NDAA Law Allowing Indefinite Military Detention of Citizens Ruled Unconstitutional - New York - News - Runnin' Scared

2012-09-12T21:58:00.001-07:00

Obama's NDAA Law Allowing Indefinite Military Detention of Citizens Ruled Unconstitutional - New York - News - Runnin' Scared: "The Obama administration's efforts to enshrine sweeping 9/11-era rollbacks of civil liberties and constitutional rights as federal law hit a serious roadblock yesterday, as a federal judge struck down clauses of the National Defense Authorization Act as unconstitutional."

'via Blog this'

Biden and Hillary to Swap.... ?

2012-08-31T09:52:00.000-07:00

A little outdated-but there are still a few days 'til the DNC-it could still happen:

Oh, I'm sorry, did the VP say something obnoxious to bigots? Guess what? That is what he collects a paycheck for. That is what he was hired for... That and he actually spent time in war zones and has a kid who served.
Biden was never going to become president... But guess who comes after Pres. Obama? President Hillary Clinton,
Senator Chelsea Clinton, and a whole lot of whiney, messy-diapered fascist with no balls whining because they have to pay taxes to fund the wars that keep their oil and defense stocks vomiting out death-dividends so they cme buy even more shut to make themselves look like greedy fucktards.
Don't expect the mad dash to the Left on the path of the current administration if they actually manage to survive another Diebold debacle.
-Or should I say e-Coup. Karl Rover will probably copyright the name iCoup. -
But I digress. More of the same will lead to more tea baggers and Paul ites.... I think there may be some OWS waves in the political future.
Let's just hope all you stupid monkeys start using more than your brain-stem soon.
We're at a crossroads. One way leads to Roddenberry's replicators and an infinite future of self-guided evolution, the other to the land of Orwell's Boot.

Countering the Argument that We are Headed for Nuclear War-My Take on: "WHILE AMERICA SLEEPS: Risking Nuclear Armageddon" By Stephen Lendman

2012-08-31T09:38:00.001-07:00

" WHILE AMERICA SLEEPS: Risking Nuclear Armageddon » |: "By Stephen Lendman

Risking Nuclear Armageddon

Irresponsible leaders risk the unthinkable. Media scoundrels cheerlead mindlessly. So do neocon think tanks. Ordinary people are more concerned about mundane trivia than survival. Nero didn’t fiddle while Rome burned. The violin wasn’t invented for another 1,500 years. Today’s officials go where earlier ones wouldn’t dare. They risk regional or global disaster. War on Syria and/or Iran may ignite more than leaders bargain for."

'via Blog this'

I agree with the risks, but I am somewhat hopeful as far as the involvement of China and Russia are concerned.
Russia talks a good game, but they have made constant excuses for years delaying promised missile and other technology to Iran. Russia has an Islamist extremist problem of their own and they don't want them to be just across the border from a nuclear-armed country with leaders who support the ideology of the extremists.
We have China-specifically their leadership-over a barrel: Much of the banking industry in China is controlled by government officials-we can blackmail them two-fold: By saying we won't pay back the $1+trillion we owe them and by closing our markets to them. One of the things about President Obama pushing an increase in exports is the rebuilding of our manufacturing base so as to threaten China. Our base has been on the down-slide for decades and is ripe for a bottom-up rebuilding. Such a rebuilding would make it the newest -and perhaps most current-in the world. On top of that, Mexico and Central America have also lost millions of jobs to China and Asia-they would greatly benefit from trade sanctions with China....or even an enforcement of current agreements. These things would harm the current leadership of China more than the people, the untapped consumer market in China is huge-they would recover, their leaders would not. That in combination with the fact that the two top Chinese banks recently did a huge survey of their millionaire customers and found that 60% (that equates to approximately 600,000) want to move to the US because their money is safer here (from government confiscation and corruption) and they prefer our style of education for their children.
So, trying to look on the bright side these are the factual things I know about....I have limited time for footnoting, her, place a query in the comment box and I will source it for you or tell you where to look.
On the personal opinion front this is what I see:
The Chinese especially are competing with us for resources to fuel their economy Russia is less vulnerable, but still has needs. Philosophically as much older countries both nations take a much longer-term view of the world. They see how top-heavy we are in military spending and unwise fiscal and taxation decisions. They would prefer for us to collapse under our own weight and not have to actually fight any wars over it. As evidence the rumors that they are building hospitals and schools in Africa to curry favor instead of dumping boat and planeloads of cash into governments who's politicians just steal it.
Our long game consists of turning the Chinese into a foreign mining subsidiary of the US empire. Rumors that many US Forces and military contractors are guarding the Chinese mining operations in Afghanistan have been circulating for a while.

Motorola Rep: Droid Bionic Ice Cream Sandwich Update Rolling Out in September

2012-08-29T13:37:00.001-07:00

Motorola Rep: Droid Bionic Ice Cream Sandwich Update Rolling Out in September: "Motorola Rep: Droid Bionic Ice Cream Sandwich Update Rolling Out in September
Adam Mills — 08/29/2012

0

EmailShare
It looks like Motorola is going to be rolling out the Motorola Droid Bionic Ice Cream Sandwich update in September."

'via Blog this'

SHOCKING : CALIFORNIA COPS OPEN FIRE ON MEN - WOMEN - CHILDREN - BABIES - YouTube

2012-07-22T14:14:00.001-07:00

SHOCKING : CALIFORNIA COPS OPEN FIRE ON MEN - WOMEN - CHILDREN - BABIES - YouTube: ""

'via Blog this'

WARNING Some People Will Find this VERY Offensive:Beware Republicans-What President Obama's Campaign Has Not Done...Yet...

2012-06-16T03:14:00.000-07:00

So, there are a few folks out there on the Republican side of the Great Divide currently referred to as 'American Politics' who are feeling a bit smug right now.
Those are the folks who understand the importance of 'messaging'. The Republican-Right has control of the collective voice-box of their whole party and they are caterwauling to the heavens a vomitous river of speech that, much like actual an actual river of real vomit, gets all over things, sticks to it, and grows more repellent and ripe every day.
Wedges of language are being driven daily ( as they have for 35 years) between all factions on the Democratic side of the aisle. Most recently in Wisconsin where they messaged the hell out of the idea that the recall should only be applied to gross abuses of power and violations of the law.
AKA: The things Walker may likely be going to prison for.
Don't think for a second that recall organizers weren't aware of that but:
1. They had far less money.
2. They were smart enough to not interfere in an ongoing investigation for political profit.

Ever wonder why Romney AND Obama steered clear of that show?

Well, don't think that the Dems are as stupid as the Teas Party Idiots hope they are when they look in the mirror and high-five themselves for destroying the recovery.

Everybody with half a brain (which eliminates a huge chunk of the TP'ers) knows that this whole thing in Wisconsin is a continuation of the multi-generational onslaught by the portion of the Republican Party that Barry Goldwater and Ike warned us about.
(Side note: you know who else thinks on the same multi-generational timeline? Muslim extremist terrorists. Seriously. Yes, I am comparing the two. They have roughly the same moral structure and level of religious fanaticism.)
The current PR-battle is a continuation of the PATCO-strike massacre of civil rights and public safety. The Right is driving a wedge between public unions and private ones.
And thinks the Dems are too dumb to notice.
Well, using the same concept as Al-Quaeda, the Taliban, and the Tea Party but on a shorter timeline the Democratic party is hedging it's bets.
They have certain demographics locked down and are preemptively dealing with voter-purges....and they can be pretty certain that Mr. Obama will utterly clean Romney's dough-filled clock in debates.
The thing that can't be counted upon is the stupidity-or lack thereof-of a certain, rather import group:
The American voter. A group so prone to inexplicable stupidity that the very future of the planet could hinge upon whether or not they decide to actually THINK before they go to the polls in November.

To be clear: I tend to go by what I hear the candidates say. I tend to shy away from candidate websites and literature for the same reason I don't go to strip-clubs: I am not a fan of having a pretty person butter me up to the point that I spend all my money just to end up going home and fucking myself.

That being said I would to point out the Dems' take on wedging groups apart...or at least the way I see it and would do it if I were an evil bastard willing to do anything utterly insane like telling voters the truth in an election year.
Much has been said about 'The Job Creators' and taxes.
Honestly, it makes a HELL of a lot of sense on the surface. What decent, intelligent, hardworking businessperson wouldn't take extra cash and do something constructive with it?
Any half-wit that has every had a good idea for a business and didn't have any venture capitol understands the old adage "it takes money to make money". Honestly, all the Republicans that I know that are in business reinvest money constantly and hire people to expand their business to make more money. When they get a tax break they often use a portion of that money to build their business-they also spend more money on beer, dinner, vacations, and toys.
People like Mitt Romney take that extra cash (-or rather the people they pay to handle it do-) and invest it where it will make the most money (like jobs in China) or be exposed to the least tax-liability (like the Cayman Islands).
If he wants to use it before the election, President Obama can just start clubbing everyone on the planet to death with that and simply ask: "Where are the jobs your greedy, treasonous, hiding your money in foreign lands, bastards?".
...that'll cull a few from the heard.
And recent history has shown all you need is to cull 538 voters.

Wait until they drop the bomb: "You real job creators are going to have to get your taxes raised because of these bastards unless you vote for me.We all know we need more revenue...where's it gonna come from? You don't think the Tea Party will vote for one of my ideas even if I am not President do you?"
You know they won't.
They won't compromise. They'll either lose, or fight 'till they are all voted-out-and by that time it will be a total clusterfuck.
...and how does that work?
Simple. The real job creators-those who have taken advantage of tax-cuts to grow their businesses will get that coded message: 'Vote for Obama and the cuts continue-but with caveats-and maybe even retroactive incentives-for those who invest'.
REMEMBER: That was one of his 2008 campaign 'promises'.
The short, long-game for the Dems?
Romney wins and if he leads the way he talks, the whole world economy goes off a cliff. in a grand, black-comedy way as if it were a 'Toonces the Driving Cat' video.
And it will if his mouth is any guide (well, that and his history in Massachusetts-except he won't be driving tech jobs out of a state, they will be going out of the country).
The very-rich will get richer. Some of the moderately-rich become very rich...and a lot of rich people become poorer.
Those folks will be pissed.
They will be retired generals and colonels, retired small-bank and mid-level insurance executives, medium-sized business and manufacturing owners....and everyone else.
In 2016-and the elections prior, they will bend the Republicans over a loading dock railing and fist them brutally...and not in the way the guy they hooked-up with at CPAC via GRINDR did either.
Actually, they will get their burnout-looking grandson who everyone thinks is a brain-dead, paint-huffing freak because he wears studded gloves and Judas Priest t-shirts but who is actually the quiet one who was paying attention all along to do it.
Forever.
Say hello to the return of the 70% top marginal tax-rate.
And the New New Deal.
And another 4 decades in the wilderness for the Republicans.
Whether or not it is good for America.

Trans Pacific Partnership Document Leaked, Shows Corporations Could Violate National Sovereignty | FDL News Desk

2012-06-13T18:24:00.003-07:00

I think this pretty much proves how full of election-year bullshit McCain et al are over the White House leaks. Whoever the leaker is is disgusted by Obama's behavior.
Lists of people to kill? Seriously? You know who does that? People like Klebold and Harris.

Letting Companies decide laws-letting foreign companies decide our laws? What the hell do these people think they are doing?

It's like the mining company from Alien traveled back through time and replaced President Obama and John McCain with androids.

Seriously. McCain sat on his hands over the Valerie Plame thing and now he's all up in arms that someone exposed what an asshole President Obama is being....

Well, at least one of them is taking a little responsibility for their own actions.

Look, I voted for Obama, and I am again this this year, but I made it very clear to his campaign I will never vote for a compromise candidate again.

Trans Pacific Partnership Document Leaked, Shows Corporations Could Violate National Sovereignty | FDL News Desk: "Trans Pacific Partnership Document Leaked, Shows Corporations Could Violate National Sovereignty
By: David Dayen Wednesday June 13, 2012 9:42 am

While I was watching a generally weak set of questioning of Jamie Dimon at the Senate Banking Committee (outside of Menendez, Brown and especially Merkley), Zach Carter was reporting on a key leaked document from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. This is the “NAFTA for Asia” trade deal that Senators sought more transparency for earlier in the week. Well, thanks to Public Citizen, now they know a bit more about what’s in this trade deal. And now we know why it was a well-guarded secret."

'via Blog this'

Stupidity...

2012-05-27T01:22:00.001-07:00

...at last, the ANSWER!